Updates: Added a new video and a secondary article.
The U.S. military has launched its first missiles in Libya against Moammar Gadhafi's forces, a senior Defense Department official said Saturday.
Earlier, French fighter jets deployed over Libya fired at a military vehicle on Saturday, the country's first strike against Moammar Gadhafi's military forces who earlier attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
U.S. Tomahawk missiles have landed in the western area around Tripoli and Misrata, the American military official said.
"He's clearly been on the offensive," the official said of Gadhafi. "He said that he was going to do a cease-fire and he continued to move his forces into Benghazi."
The military official said the attacks on Gadhafi's forces will be part of a multiphase approach in a sequential and deliberate manner.
"The U.S. will be at the front end of this, providing the unique capabilities that the U.S has," the official said.
While French jets launched the first attacks on Gadhafi's forces, Americans jets will be part of the enforcement. "When this commences, we'll have American aircraft involved," the official said.
The French Defense Ministry said its attack aircraft being used to take out tanks and artillery have deemed Benghazi and the surrounding area an "exclusion zone."
The French are using surveillance aircraft and two frigates in the operation to protect civilians. The aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle will soon depart Toulon, France.
"Our air force will oppose any aggression by Colonel Gadhafi against the population of Benghazi," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, speaking after an international, top-level meeting in Paris over the Libyan crisis.
"As of now, our aircraft are preventing planes from attacking the town," he said, calling the intervention a "grave decision."
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Updated article:
Nations bombing Libya are 'terrorists,' Gadhafi says
Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi called the allied nations bombing his country "terrorists" Sunday, a day after the United States, United Kingdom and France began to enforce a United Nations-mandated no-fly zone to protect Libya's civilians from their leader.
There was violence across the country on Sunday, with Gadhafi apparently shelling rebels in the west while allied airstrikes destroyed one of Gadhafi's convoys in the east, according to rebels.
Gadhafi said the strikes were a confrontation between the Libyan people and "the new Nazis," and promised "a long-drawn war."
"You have proven to the world that you are not civilized, that you are terrorists -- animals attacking a safe nation that did nothing against you," Gadhafi said in a televised speech.
Gadhafi did not appear on screen during the address, leading CNN's Nic Robertson in Tripoli to speculate that the Libyan leader did not want to give the allies clues about his location.
Throughout the address, an image of a golden fist crushing a model plane that said "USA" filled the screen -- a monument in Tripoli to the 1986 American bombing of Libya, in which one U.S. plane was downed.
At the same time Gadhafi spoke, his regime was shelling the city of Misrata on Sunday morning using tanks, artillery and cannons, a witness said.
"They are destroying the city," said the witness, who is not being identified for safety reasons. He said rebels were fighting back.
Sounds of heavy gunfire could be heard during a telephone conversation with the man. There was no immediate word on casualties.
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